Students, are your college prep plans complete?

August 25, 2014

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – You have your books, made your living arrangements and have all your classes scheduled. Everything is in place for a great year at college – well, not quite.

The path to a college degree is a long one, and there are many steps students can take to ensure that path is as smooth as possible. To aid in the journey, Purdue is offering a guide that students can review each semester as a reminder of proactive measures they can take to make sure they are getting the most out of college.

The guide, http://www.purdue.edu/checklist/BGR/, is based on findings from the Gallup-Purdue Index, a national survey of 30,000 college graduates. The survey found that graduates who have a high sense of well-being and are engaged in their jobs had some key experiences in common while they were on campus: They were emotionally supported and had experiential and deep learning opportunities.

“These findings keep taking us back to the fact that ‘how’ you go to college is every bit as important – or maybe even more so – than ‘where’ you go to college,” said Purdue President Mitch Daniels. “This guide can help students at any university stay on track to take advantage of the endless options available on campus and get the most out of their college experience.”

The guide provides several broad categories, along with specific actions under each, that students should consider. The categories include:

* Get to know your instructors

* Get involved, become a leader

* Good study skills to ensure academic excellence

* Spend and invest wisely

* Well-being

* Graduate in 4 years

Lumina Foundation has provided thought leadership and funding that have shaped the Gallup-Purdue collaboration. Jamie Merisotis, president and CEO of Lumina Foundation, said a meaningful college experience is not something that just happens - universities need to work with students to make it possible.

"The Gallup-Purdue Index points to common denominators that create a productive student experience and, ultimately, satisfied working adults," Merisotis said. "This tool is a good step toward creating a student-centric system with a map to success from the start."

Brandon Busteed, executive director of Gallup Education,said, “We believe the Gallup-Purdue Index can provide groundbreaking data about the qualities that lead to a sense of well-being in college graduates. It’s gratifying to see this information being used in a way that can have a positive impact on the success and livelihood of the students of today and our leaders of tomorrow.”

About Gallup-Purdue Index:

The Gallup-Purdue Index will be released annually for the next five years to create a national benchmark. Through its partnership with Gallup, Purdue will conduct a survey of its alumni that will allow for comparisons to the national benchmark and for in-depth research specific to Purdue. Other leading institutions of higher education have made the same commitment.

The Gallup-Purdue Index provides a definitive measure of how college graduates are doing on five key dimensions of well-being: purpose, social, physical, financial and community. It will also measure graduates’ workplace engagement including things such as whether they like what they do, do what they're best at and have someone who cares about their development. In addition to the validated constructs Gallup has used to determine workplace engagement and well-being, Gallup will measure items that test the "customer" engagement of alumni, including their emotional attachment to their educational experience. The study will also include many crucial demographic items such as race, gender, household income, profession, student loan debt, whether respondents have started or plan to start a business, and whether they were first-generation college students, among other items.

About Lumina Foundation:

Lumina Foundation is an independent, private foundation committed to increasing the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees, certificates and other credentials to 60 percent by 2025. Lumina’s outcomes-based approach focuses on helping to design and build an accessible, responsive and accountable higher education system while fostering a national sense of urgency for action to achieve Goal 2025. For more information on Lumina, visit http://www.luminafoundation.org.

About Purdue University

Purdue University, a top public research institution, offers higher education at its highest proven value. Committed to affordability, the university has frozen tuition and most fees at 2012-13 levels. Committed to student success, Purdue is changing the student experience with greater focus on faculty-student interaction and creative use of technology. Committed to pursuing scientific discoveries and engineered solutions, Purdue has streamlined pathways for faculty and student innovators who have a vision for moving the world forward.